Family farming and the agribusiness sector planning in the FHC, Lula, and Dilma administrations: continuities and discontinuities

Abstract

Planning consists of moments when governments and societies think about their contexts, conduct analyses, design actions and act based on representations and expectations. In particular, the Agriculture and Livestock Plans (PAP) and the Family Farming Crop Year Plans (PSAF) express interpretations of rural development and major issues in the policy agenda, indicate to farmers and markets expectations about agricultural and livestock production, and define the legal and financial provisions of agricultural policies. Analyzed from a long-term perspective, these documents are important for understanding the way in which agriculture, rural areas, and actors have been interpreted by governments. This article analyzes these documents over three specific periods - Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s terms (1995-1998/1999-2002), Lula da Silva’s terms (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff’s first term (2011-2014) – seeking understand how the agribusiness sector and family farming were understood, which instruments and actions were aimed at these groups, and what were the continuities and changes between different governments. The results emphasize important continuities in terms of policies for agribusiness among governments, with the most significant discontinuities in the treatment of family farming, which gained in prominence after the first Lula government. The final considerations highlight the inequality in the State's treatment of agribusiness and family farming and the lack of coherence between sector planning instruments.